Story Telling Group

Story Telling at People First Lambeth includes all. People with very mild learning disabilities who can take the lead in telling the story come to groups as well as people with autism, people with very high support needs and those who are multiply disabled.

People do not need to use speech or any formal language to join in. Story Telling was developed at People First to be inclusive of everyone and it includes art, singing, music, dancing, dressing up, funny props, recording sounds and rude noises.

This year we have told classical stories including Shakespeare's Macbeth, Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince and Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

We have also told traditional stories from around the world and a favourite with all groups is The Magic Paintbrush. This is a Chinese story about a poor young man who is given a magic paintbrush and told to only paint for poor people and never, ever paint for rich folk.

When the young man paints with the brush the things that he paints become real and so he is able to help people. When we do this story people in the group decide what he can paint to help people and they always think of a house, good food and clothes.

Soon the wealthy Emperor learns abut the magic brush and orders the young man to paint him a tree that grows money. The young man refuses and is thrown into prison.

Eventually, the young man is able to escape by using his magic paintbrush. He paints a key to unlock the door and a horse to ride off on. Then he paints a dragon to fight and frighten the Emperor. We always make a dragon puppet from fabric.

The groups also make up and act out their own stories and here are some of people's own stories.

Reshma's Story:
Reshma went on a holiday to Centre Parks and had a real adventure. She swam and rode a horse. Reshma went for a bike ride in the woods and found a tiny kitten. Reshma telephoned the number on the kitten's collar and then put the kitten inside her jacket and road her bike to where he lived to take him home.

Marco's Story:
In the mini bus on the way to the day centre Marco rang the day centre to say "We are not coming in we are going on a holiday." Then Marco gave the driver some money to take the all to the seaside where they had fish and chips and Guinness.

Alice's Story:
Alice called for best friend, Adeola. The two of them went to a tea dance where they danced all afternoon. At the end of the dance they had chocolate cake.

We have Story Telling Groups at 336 Brixton Road and at Lambeth Walk and Landmark day centres. Christina and Donna are the Story Telling workers.

If you want to come to Story Telling at Lambeth ACCORD, 336 Brixton Road, SW9 7AA please call Donna on 020 7642 0045.